Can Tony Dunker, shown during his halcyon days in the "B" modifieds, make a run at Michael Long's record 16 feature victories?

Before you say it, I will. I know it’s early, but the starts Abe Huls and Tony Dunker are off to it’s getting close to the time we start saying “what if … ”

Both Huls and Dunker won their fourth features (in six tries) Sunday night at the Bullring, and with those kinds of starts it’s fun to see what kind of math is involved when it comes to chasing track records.

Let’s look at Huls first. Arguably even more impressive than the four features is that he’s won the last three in f lag-to-flag fashion. No driver has won back-to-back-to-back features in flag-to-flag style since I started monitoring that specific feat four seasons ago. To show how rare Huls’ current streak is, consider that in 2011 the stock car series had four flag-to-flag winners the entire season.

Now, as far the stock car record for features won in a season is concerned, that achievement belongs to Jeff Mueller. Old No. 77 won nine of them in the inaugural year for the stocks in 2008. The closest any driver has come to that was Aaron Brocksieck (7) in 2011.

There are 17 Sunday nights left in the season, so that means Huls has to win five more features to tie Mueller and six to own the record. That sounds workable to me, but before you hand Honest Abe the keys to the kingdom remember last season when Brocksieck won the first three main events and five of the first seven? Brocksieck’s second half of the season turned into a struggle.

Let’s look at Dunker. There’s a couple of things to consider in this case. I’m looking more at his chance of establishing an overall track record for feature wins, which belongs to modified driver Michael Long during his incredible two-year run between 2007-08. Long won 16 features in 2007, 15 in 2008. Can Dunker get that (overall) modified record?

What Dunker has going for him he is an established veteran in a class where (probably) one of four drivers will likely win the feature every week: Dunker, Vance Wilson, Bobby Anders and Joe Bliven. There are some talented younger drivers like Brad Holtmeyer, Brandon Dale, Tanner Klingele and a few others, but on most Sunday nights the favorites are going to be the veterans. (There were five established vets, but it appears Jim Gillenwater has said hasta la vista to Quincy.)

To get the record, Dunker would need to win 12 of the final 17 to tie and 13 to own the record. That’s how dominant Long was that one season. Possibly a more realistic goal would be to join the 10-win feature club. That’s only been done in four different years since stats started being kept in 1999, most recently in 2010 (Long, 10).

Dunker is off to his best start since he was a dominant force in the old “B” mods. He won back-to-back track titles in 2003-04 and was runner-up in 2005. The “B” mods were ended after that season when the track went to one modified series — until this season. (Not counting the four races the sport mods ran in 2011.)

There are also some drivers who appear poised to possibly set sail after overall victory records, but that’s another topic for another day later in the season.

One thing we did not discuss was rain. A few well-placed Sunday rainouts could really screw up these record pursuits. But again, that’s another topic for another day.

10 stars: Honest Abe Huls, who won his third straight flag-to-flag stock car feature. No other driver has led a stock car feature lap since May 6.9 stars: Jared Schlipman, who won his first modified feature of the season and the 40th race of his Bullring career.8 stars: Mark Burgtorf, who won his first late model feature of the year and pulled off the second trifecta of the young season. Burgtorf also won the late model dash and a heat race.7 stars: Flagman Chris Miller, who waved Old Yeller a season-high 35 times Sunday night. The modifieds were especially crash-happy. The UMP mods (11) and IMCA sport mods (9) combined for 20 cautions.6 stars: Tony Dunker, who won his fourth overall and second straight sport mod feature.5 stars: Brandon Symmonds, who won his first hobby stock main event. Symmonds led the final 14 laps — the first feature laps he has led this season.4 stars: Chuck Fullenkamp, who became the first sport compact driver to win two features.3 stars: Darin Weisinger, who enjoyed his finest night in a stock car to date. Weisinger ran a strong third in the feature and also won a heat race.2 stars: Denny Woodworth, for his second-place late model feature finish, his best of the season. Only Burgtorf’s car appeared stronger Sunday night.1 star: Lon Tournear, for his interview remarks in the “Your Turn” section of Saturday’s Herald-Whig.

Comments (6)

them blonde girls are great race fans. they like I thought there were to many yellows. guess QR has no time limits. fine with me, a free joie joie chitwood show. its always the blackest before dawn. listen to dirt he is right 15% of the time.

Dave,
What I heard about Jim was that a few weeks back when the big late model show cancelled and QR put the sportmods back on the schedule for points, Jim already had made other plans for the night and was not happy with QR for making it a last minute points night so I don’t think we’ll see him back on a regular basis again. At least that is what I heard, but not from the horses mouth.